Anxiety symptoms as a moderator of the reciprocal links between forms of aggression and peer victimization in middle childhood

The current short-term longitudinal study evaluated whether anxiety symptoms moderated the bidirectional associations between forms (i.e., physical and relational) of aggression and peer victimization over a 1-year period during middle childhood. Participants were 228 predominantly Caucasian children (50.4% boys; M=8.32 years, SD=.95 years) in the second through fourth grades and their homeroom teachers. Children completed a self-report measure of anxiety symptoms at Time 1. Peer victimization was assessed using self-reports at Time 1 and approximately 1 year later (Time 2), and teachers provided ratings of children's aggressive behavior at both time points. A series of cross-lagged path analysis models indicated that high (+1 SD) initial levels of anxiety symptoms exacerbated the prospective link from Time 1 relational aggression to Time 2 peer victimization; conversely, when initial levels of anxiety symptoms were low (-1 SD), relational aggression predicted lower levels of subsequent peer victimization. Time 1 peer victimization was also found to predict lower levels of Time 2 physical aggression when initial levels of anxiety symptoms were low, and Time 1 anxiety symptoms were uniquely related to higher levels of relational aggression over a 1-year period. Regions of significance were calculated to further decompose significant interactions, which did not differ according to gender. Study findings are discussed within a social information processing theoretical framework, and directions for future research and implications for practice are reviewed. Specifically, co-occurring anxiety symptoms may need to be addressed in interventions for both aggression and peer victimization during middle childhood.